The Plan
Aliyah C., age 10
Liberty Street Tutoring
On the first day of school this friend of a friend of my friend—well, let’s call him Jake—was either feeling rude or wasn’t thinking at that moment and made a comment (a not-so-nice one) about me and my friend J (not Jake). In my mind, I started to fume. Jake did stuff almost EXACTLY like last year, and the year before that. I was not in a good state that day. I forgot my math binder, my dessert, and then this happened. At that moment, not even J could calm me down. The next day I was STILL fuming.
Meanwhile in art class, I don’t know how my other friend Cat did it, but she managed to calm me down. Then we made a plan.
Plan A: Ignore them every single time we spot them.
Plan B: No plan B.
Plan C: ROAST them, then walk away.
Plan D: Yell yo-mama jokes at them till they get the hint.
Plan E: Tell on their teacher because at this point, we can’t handle it on our own.
We wrote down these plans on a scrap piece of paper and we’d start our class from art class and beyond. After art class this gave me confidence and determination.
A week later, after one of his final rude outbursts I told him off. I went up to Jake and told him that I did NOT appreciate all the teasing, comments, and his behavior. I said I had no appreciation for what he is doing and he should knock it off. Apparently he didn’t know he was hurting me that much, so he knocked it off (for now). After I had the courage to tell him off, he never talked about it again. My friend was really helpful and she was and is very kind to me; she is able to conjure ideas and think through problems like this.
Artwork by Jen Harley, jenharley.com